The world’s wealthiest man; Elon Musk has revealed that his neurotechnology company; Neuralink is set to start clinical human trials for the brain chips it developed as early as six (6) months from now. The announcement is coming after Neuralink which develops brain-computer interfaces that are implantable.
According to the company its brain chip interfaces are able to help disable patients communicate and move. Its Co-Founder; Elon Musk stated that the brain chips can also help bring back eyesight.
Neuralink which was Co-Founded by Elon Musk, Max Hodak and Paul Merolla and currently based in San Francisco has in the past couple of years, carried out a number of clinical trials on animals as it continues to pursue approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set up the human clinical trials.
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Billionaire Elon Musk made it known that, “We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human.”
While speaking to select attendees at a presentation at the Neuralink headquarters the Co-Founder touched on the pace with which the company has developed the brain chip.
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In his words, “The progress at first, particularly as it applies to humans, will seem perhaps agonizingly slow, but we are doing all of the things to bring it to scale in parallel.”
During the presentation which lasted for a period of almost three (3) hours Elon Musk added that, “So, in theory, progress should be exponential.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States (US) has refused to reveal any information with regards to whether or not any product applications exist as well as the status of said applications if they do exist.
The very first clinical human trials that will be carried out with the Neuralink brain chip will focus on movement of muscles and the restoration of eyesight. In the words of Elon Musk, “Even if someone has never had vision, ever, like they were born blind, we believe we can still restore vision.”
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Although the event was initially scheduled for the 31st of October 2022 the Billionaire moved to reschedule and did not provide any reasons for the decision.
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The last presentation carried out by Neuralink a little over a year ago, had a monkey implanted with a brain chip interface. It was able to play a computer game simply by thinking on its own.
Elon Musk who is also known for The Boring Company, popular social media platform; Twitter, SolarCity and Tesla Energy, SpaceX, Starlink and Tesla, has over the years revealed grand goals like saving the human race, colonizing Mars, and of course his Neuralink ambitions.
On the Neuralink front the Billionaire is looking to create a chip that will make it possible for the brain to be able to control compound electronic devices and also in the long run, make it possible for people affected by paralysis to possess motor functions.
It is also projected that the chip will have the ability to treat Brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and Parkinson’s as well as being able to merge the human brain with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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As I stands, Neuralink is significantly behind its schedule. During a presentation in 2019, Elon Musk made it known that he was looking to receive a regulatory approval by the end of 2020. At a conference towards the end of 2021 revealed that he was hoping to commence human clinical trials by this year; 2022.
According to reports and information form past and present employees Neuralink, has missed a number of internal deadlines set for securing the approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin the human clinical trials.
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In August of 2021 the Thomson Reuters Corporation owned news agency; Reuters revealed that Neuralink’s Co-Founder; Elon Musk had earlier on in the year, talked with the company’s competitor; Synchron which is an endovascular Brain Computer (BCI) company, about investing into it. It was revealed that the conversation was had after Elon Musk expressed frustration to Neuralink’s employees regarding their slow progress.
In July of this year; 2022 Synchron reached a major milestone when it successfully implanted its very own device in a patient in the United States (US) for the very first time.
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In 2021, Synchron received a United States (US) regulatory clearance that made it possible for it to begin human trials.
Synchron has so far, successfully completed studies on four (4) people in Australia.
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